E-Machines - Changed Motherboard - Recovery CDs Won't Work

[Guest]

I had to replace the motherboard in my mother-in-law's Emachines PC. The
existing Windows XP Professional installation will NOT work with the new
board.

I tried to used 'Recovery' CDs that came with the PC to reinstall XP, but
these will NOT work either. These CDs contain a 'ghost' image of the
original installation.

I contacted E-machines and they're telling me that I need to purchase a new
copy of Windows XP. This makes no sense. Is there any way to get Windows XP
Professional re-installed on this PC without having to purchase a new license?

Can I possibly get a Win XP Pro installation CD (without a license) from
Microsoft and use the product key that's on the sticker on the back of the PC?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Guest]

You didnt say what board is now installed,either way,even with the exact
same board from emachine,you might get by with the original cds.Anything
else,forget it.....The cds specifically must run with the board they came
with,
and no the stickers wont help,they have no value with microsoft,thier oem.

 

[Guest]

On older versions of Windows XP installations you have to use the 6 floppies
discs to install the OS, then the Windows XP Pro disc.

 

[Guest]

Another E-Machines victim. Best bet with this one, done it a few times, is
get a mobo with the same chipset.

IE my mates mothers emachines was a intel 845g chipset. So I bought the
cheapest 845g board of ebay. about £10. No reinstall of XP required just plug
everything in and it runs sweet.

You need drivers for new board but that's it, at least it will start.

 

[Guest]

The reason why the recovery cd's wont work is because they are tied to the
mobo bios. a new board will not be recognised by them.

If you then want to upgrade to another system once the replacement mobo has
been booted, perform and upgrade using a retail upgrade version of xp (you
choose but you will have to buy one) and swap the board out when the
installation goes to "setup is inspecting your hardware". Restart the box and
let setup finish.

New install, new systrem, old settings and docs.

Chow

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Incorrect.
Retail Windows XP CDs have been bootable since originally released.
Additionally, most if not all Windows XP OEM CDs are also bootable.
The set of boot floppies are only needed if for some reason the computer is
unable to to boot to CD, but that is a hardware issue and not a Windows
issue.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Unless the replacement motherboard is also from Emachines, your CD will not
work.
Since your computer is OEM, Microsoft can not help with CDs.
Since you now have a non Emachine motherboard, Emachines will not help.

You have a few choices and a few are:
1. Replace motherboard with an Emachine motherboard.
2. Buy Windows XP.

 

[DL]

Its not an MS scam, its the end user choosing the cheapest option

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

"Sounds like Microsoft has a pretty good little scam"
That ignores the fact Emachines had several options and chose the cheapest
option on behalf of their customers.
The cheapest option for Emachines becomes a lower priced computer for you
the buyer and this is what happens when price is a major factor in
determining what to purchase.

Many of the major OEMs do it this way or similar.
Your best option to avoid this in the future is to go to a local shop and
have them build a computer to your specifications, but it will probably cost
more.

 

[Guest]

EVEN if the mobo is form Emachines it may not work. They were known for using
numerous different boards in same-model computers.

The basic issue is that the IDE (disk) driver differs. If you can soemhow
get Windows running to change the IDE driver to "Standard PCI IDE Driver"
then it will likely boot, and you can proceed to reload the correct drivers
for the new board. To do this you'd need to find a board it will boot on,
though. If you can persuade the old board to boot once you should be able to
do this.

Other route is to load the recovery image, then do a Repair Install. To do
this you need a Windows CD, or the i386 folder if it exists. winnt.exe is the
file to run, fom DOS.

 

[Guest]

like I said earlier. find out what board was in the box and get on ebay and
look for a board with the same chipset. chances are it's a intel 845g most of
them are from e-mac and also many other intel oem suppliers.

It generally costs me 15-20 quid to fix this specific problem.

go to Ebay, computers, mainboard and do a search for intel 845 including
description. pick one with agp (pci-e on 845 is rare). should have no
problems with hd as drivers will install on reboot as standard ide.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

I am not sure about Emachines, but generally with others all that is
required is the motherboard be from the same manufacturer.
The recovery CD will recognize it as an Emachine motherboard or another
manufacturer and not work.